( 1 ) THE main question on which our opinion is ught in this reference under section 57 (2) of the Indian Stamp Act, 1899, is whether the five indentical letters dated 6th March 1961 written by Smt. Satya Wati to Jagdish Rai, Raman Kumar, Ajay Kumar, Satish Kumar and Sudershan Rani are liable to stamp duty under Article 35 of Schedule l-A (Delhi) of the Stamp Act as being a "lease" as defined in section 2 (l6) (b) of the said Act.

THE letters open with the following sentence:- "with reference to the oral arrangements arrived at with you on 3rd March, 1961 we have to put on record the same as under. "the rest of the letters are supposed to be a record of the various terms of the lease, as many as seventeen, said to have been agreed between the parties orally on 3rd March 1961. Briefly, the arrangement was to be that a lease of a furnished cinema building was given to Satya Wati by the five addressees (lessors) from month to month with effect from 3rd March 1961 on a monthly rent of Rs. 2700.

( 2 ) UNDER section 107 of the Transfer of Property Act, it is only a lease of immovable property which is from year to year or which is for a term exceeding one year or which